


With Me, With You

by hilaryfaye



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 23:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1204663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hilaryfaye/pseuds/hilaryfaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I know that your concept of ‘fun’ is warped, but unlike one of us I like being able to take regular hot showers and eating food that isn’t under a layer of grease.” Shintarou picked over his salad, frowning at it as if the vegetables were to blame for Taiga’s insistence on a “road trip.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Me, With You

“No. Absolutely not. This is the worst idea you’ve had, among many terrible ideas.”

“Ah, come on, it will be fun,” Taiga cajoled, or something like that--over the years Shintarou had learned more or less how to decode what Taiga said around mouthfuls of food, but his translations weren’t perfect.  
 

They were having this discussion over lunch at a diner--one of the few that Shintarou could actually tolerate, though he rarely ate anything but the salad: he never spent enough time exercising anymore to work up the appetite he’d had in his teens. Taiga, for his part, had a ridiculously massive burger every time they came and ate as if he’d never seen food before. He’d gone a little soft around the middle.

“I know that your concept of ‘fun’ is warped, but unlike one of us I like being able to take regular hot showers and eating food that isn’t under a layer of grease.” Shintarou picked over his salad, frowning at it as if the vegetables were to blame for Taiga’s insistence on a “road trip.”

Shintarou would find whoever had given him the idea and throttle them. “Just because we are currently residing on a large continent does not mean that we need to drive across it.”

Taiga frowned at that, and acted like he was going to say something--but then seemed to remember (for once) that his mouth was too stuffed full of burger for him to be understood. So he chewed with a frown for a moment, and then looked up. “Well when else are we going to have this much free time, hmm? And it’s not just about driving across it, it’s about seeing it.”

That sounded suspiciously like a thought-out response. “How long have you been thinking about this?” Shintarou asked.

“A couple of weeks.”

“Since you got the car.” ‘A couple of weeks’ was never just a couple of weeks with Kagami Taiga.

Taiga shrugged. Of course he had. Of course. Shintarou should have expected something like this. He stabbed his salad a little more violently than necessary.

“I’m just saying,” Taiga said, which was what he always said when he thought he was losing the argument, “it would be a chance for you and me to see whatever we want to see. There’s loads of stuff, I’ve been looking at it online and it would be better than just staying here at home--”

Shintarou interrupted him. “Why do you want to do this so much?”

That caught Taiga off guard. He thought about it for a little bit, staring off through the window. “I just think it would be fun for us to do,” he said. “And I don’t know if we’ll ever get the chance again.”

He had that thoughtful tone to his voice that meant he was really invested, which Shintarou had been afraid of. He sipped at his water, not meeting Taiga’s eyes for a moment. He made the mistake of glancing at Taiga and hated himself for it because he was making that face--the face he made when he really really wanted something, please, Shintarou.

“I get to pick the music if we go,” he said, stabbing his salad again.

That was the surest way to give Taiga pause. They disagreed on a lot of things but chief among those issues was music.

“We’ll trade off,” he said at last, “every two hours.”

That sounded agreeable enough. It at least ensured that he wouldn’t have to spend entire days listening to every album Taiga owned. “And,” Shintarou added, “I’ll pick where we eat.” For someone who cooked as well as he did, Taiga was far too willing to eat garbage.

Taiga shrugged, not going to argue now that it looked like he was getting his way.

“And we are finding a way to shower regularly I am not going to be stuck in a car smelling you after three days.”

“Motels exist,” Taiga replied. “And I don’t smell that bad.” He looked pleased though--more than pleased. Closer to delighted.

“I think you must have killed your own sense of smell if you really believe that. I made the mistake of going on a camping trip with you, I know what you smell like when there’s no soap around.” Shintarou smiled a little, though. He was, as Takao would freely tell him, a complete sucker for this overgrown tiger sitting across from him.

Otherwise he would never have agreed.

#

The car was nice enough. A little old, had a dent in the left door (Shintarou was sure that Taiga was probably responsible for it however much Taiga insisted innocence) but in good shape. Shintarou rarely used it, it was definitely Taiga’s car.

As evidenced by the bags from fast food joints Taiga was busy cleaning out of the foot area of the passenger side.

“Ah,” Shintarou said, observing the growing trashbag Taiga was filling, “I see. This is where I have chosen to place my affection.”

Taiga gave him a caustic look. “If you want, I can just leave all this stuff here.”

“Or you could clean your car more regularly than once every four months.” God knew, he took it to the car wash often enough. The outside always looked flawless--and for as neat as Taiga was in the house, the state of the car frankly surprised him.

Taiga glanced at him, noting the teddy bear in Shintarou’s hand. “That your lucky item or is someone we know expecting a baby?”

Shintarou ignored that. “You still need to pack.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m gonna do that after I finish cleaning out the car.” He straightened up, leaning over the car door and looking at Shintarou intently for a moment.

“What?” Whether or not Taiga knew it, his stare could be unsettling sometimes. Especially if he looked like he was thinking about something.

“I was just thinking about basketball.”

“Is there a time when you don’t?”

“It’s been a while since we played one on one.”

A lot of that had to do with how rarely they finished a game. They were too-well matched to really have any fun. “Maybe we’ll play after you finish packing,” Shintarou replied. He knew Taiga too well not to remind him to pack a change of clothes every time he got the chance. Taiga would forget to eat if he didn’t like food so much, and he was exceptionally good at forgetting things in favor of thinking about basketball.

Their place wasn’t very big, but it was comfortable. They’d only just finished unpacking all their things, getting settled. This was, for all intents and purposes, Shintarou’s home now.

And he did not like the thought of leaving it unattended for a month or more.

He was brooding in the kitchen over a cup of tea when Taiga came inside. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.”

“Right,” Taiga said, sounding unconvinced. He tossed a basketball at Shintarou. “I’ll go pack. Then we’ll play some one on one, huh?”

“Sure.”

#

They had a small outdoor court about a block from their house.. Shintarou was fairly certain it was meant for teenagers, and not them, but that never stopped Taiga. He was out there almost every day, even if he was just by himself.

There was something bittersweet about it. “You could’ve gone professional, you know,” Takao would say when they talked--which wasn’t often, anymore, but Takao never really let them fall out of contact. Shintarou didn’t know why. “Both of you could have. Why didn’t you?”

Shintarou always changed the subject. He hadn’t wanted to be professional. He didn’t know why Taiga hadn’t--he’d never asked, and Taiga never said.

He had shot seven flawless threes by the time Taiga got outside again, and he wasn’t particularly trying.

He still took exceptionally good care of his hands, though he no longer taped his fingers every day.  

He tossed the ball to Taiga. He did miss the court, sometimes--but not as much as Taiga did. He was sure of that.

Taiga still breathed basketball. You could see it in the way he moved, his eyes.

He made to dunk--God, even after all these years he was so predictable. Shintarou jumped with him, swiping the basketball out of his hand.

In six minutes flat they were swearing at each other and fighting with everything they had, since neither of them had yet to make a basket. This was the way their games usually went.

By ten minutes, Shintarou had made the first basket--but Taiga caught him around the hips, and held him there.

Shintarou looked down at him, an eyebrow raised. “I’m fairly certain that seizing your opponent is not approved of.”

Taiga just grinned, still managing to hold Shintarou’s feet off the ground. “Nah, but you looked so damn gloomy I had to do something.”

Shintarou smiled. Taiga put him on his feet and ducked in for a kiss.

“You’re going to bring that basketball with us, aren’t you?”

“‘Course I am.”

Of course he was.

#

Whatever misgivings Shintarou had had, the first day of their trip was pleasant. Enjoyable, even.

Neither complained about the other’s choice in music, the drive was beautiful, and Shintarou didn’t even think to miss home.

Instead he watched Taiga drumming on the steering wheel to the songs he picked (when Shintarou picked the music, he would mime conducting while at a stop light, and Shintarou would laugh even though part of him wanted to frown disapprovingly).

“So? Is it still my worst idea?” Taiga asked as they got settled in their motel room for the night.

Shintarou didn’t answer right away--partly because he knew the longer he waited to say anything, the more nervous Taiga would get. He sat in the one chair the room offered, filing his nails. “Today was nice,” he said at last.

Taiga smiled broadly and flopped on the bed, stretching with a contented sigh. Shintarou slid into bed next to him, picking up a book he’d been meaning to read. Taiga shifted around so his head was in Shintarou’s lap while he watched a basketball game on the TV.

Shintarou watched the game too, book open in his hands. Taiga turned the TV off when the game was done, and neither of them said a word about it.

#

By day four, Shintarou was getting tired of sleeping in beds that weren’t his, washing in showers where the water temperature was unpredictable at best, and spending a considerable portion of each day in the car.

It wasn’t too bad, though--even if Taiga was taking a ludicrous amount of photos, of which Shintarou was in at least half if not more. They were, or so it seemed to Shintarou, stopping at every possible scenic view and tourist trap that their route had to offer. Taiga smiled a lot, he laughed a lot. And he’d been far too quiet before they left on this trip.

The afternoon of the fifth day, shortly after they’d left some godforsaken desert that Shintarou had been terrified they’d die in when the car started making unusual noises, they happened across some kids playing street ball. College students, but Shintarou’s guess, and he knew from the gleam in Taiga’s eye that there was no point in telling him they should find a place to stay for the night first. (And have someone look at the car.)

He thought he’d beg off by saying he was looking for hotels on his phone, but Taiga was having none of it. The kids were friendly enough, and apparently basketball was their universal language because they were more than happy to throw a couple of strangers into their game, one in each team.

Taiga might have been a little caught off guard by the ferocity with which Shintarou played.

There were plenty of other people there, but Taiga and Shintarou might as well have been playing one on one again. It might have been years since they last played a formal game, but it hadn’t been that long.

You didn’t easily forget what you’d devoted most of your life to.

And maybe that was why Shintarou won.

It was the first time in ages either of them had actually finished a game.

Taiga stood with his hands on his waist, panting. He smiled, and that almost made Shintarou feel worse. “Good game.”

“Can we please get a hotel room now?”

Taiga’s smile faded a little. He wasn’t terribly observant, but long-term exposure to Shintarou had at least made him notice the subtle shifts--when the irritation went beyond his normal state of being.

“Are you okay?” he asked when they were back in the car.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“Shintarou.”

He stared at his phone under the pretense of finding a place to stay. “There’s a hotel a couple of blocks from here. Let’s go see if they have any vacant rooms, then you can find a mechanic to look at the car.”

Taiga sighed and started the car, pulling away from the curb.

He wasn’t drumming on the steering wheel to his music anymore.

#

After a shower so lukewarm that Shintarou felt vaguely like disappointing oatmeal, he flopped on the bed (so stiff he knew he wouldn’t sleep at all that night) and stared at the ceiling.

“What’s bothering you so much?” Taiga asked.

“Nothing is bothering me,” Shintarou replied, twirling that day’s lucky item--a pair of knitting needles--through his fingers.

“Bullshit.”

Shintarou almost stabbed the needles into the mattress. “If you miss basketball so much why did you give it up?”

Taiga stared at him--possibly the most shocked he’d looked since Shintarou asked Taiga to marry him. “What?”

“It’s obvious you miss it every day. You watch the games on TV but you’re never really into it. Every chance you get you’re out there with a basketball and--you could have gone professional, Taiga. Everyone thought you would. Why didn’t you?” Shintarou stared at him, feeling suddenly too close in this tiny room, like all the air had been sucked out.

Taiga was quiet for a long moment. Shintarou put the knitting needles on the nightstand, afraid he’d probably injure himself if he didn’t put them down.

“Everyone thought you were going to go professional, too,” Taiga said softly.

“Except you,” Shintarou said.

“Well, you told me you weren’t going to. Wasn’t what you wanted, you said, you were done. And I knew better than to think you’d change your mind.” He was quiet again, a hand on the back of his neck. “I guess, I thought… I didn’t want to play if I wasn’t going to play with you.”

Shintarou stared at him. “You’ve lost your mind.”

“Shut the hell up and let me finish.” He looked angry again, which made Shintarou feel better. “I knew that if I was going to play basketball, I wanted to play basketball with you. You said yourself, we’re perfectly matched.”

“No, I said you’re the worst opponent I could possibly have.”

“Close enough,” he said, grinning. He could switch moods at the flip of a coin. “But I don’t want to play basketball if it’s not with you.”

Shintarou put a hand over his face. “You’re the most embarrassing person I’ve ever met.”

Taiga jumped on the bed, nearly sending Shintarou tumbling off. “Yeah, I know,” he said, nibbling on Shintarou’s neck because he knew it would make him make the most undignified sounds. “You still blush.”

“Shut up,” Shintarou mumbled, knowing his face was already pink. “You like embarrassing me.”

“I think you like being embarrassed.” Taiga smiled. “Why else would you keep me around?”

“I think you might have hit me over the head with something heavy.”

“Play basketball with me tomorrow before we leave?”

“I will fucking kill you if you don’t shut the hell up about basketball when you’re on top of me.”

#

“You missed the exit three miles back and that is why we’re in the middle of nowhere,” Shintarou informed him, pointing to the map. A barely begun scarf was sitting in his lap with the knitting needles--his guage was terrible, but he’d figured he might as well do something with the needles and the time spent sitting in the car. He sat ripping out stitches while Taiga frowned at the map, intending to start over.

It was currently Shintarou’s two hours with the music, and so Taiga was scowling at the map with the rousing background of “Ride of the Valkyries.”

Shintarou was fifteen stitches into casting on when Taiga folded the map and started the car again, drawing curious looks from the cows that were grazing in the field next to them.

They were on their way home now--it seemed to Shintarou like they’d hardly left. He was almost sad, thinking about how things would go back to normal once they were home.

But… he looked at Taiga, who didn’t notice as he drew on the map with a pencil. Maybe not normal.

Maybe better.

“Taiga,” Shintarou said as they pulled away on the empty road.

“Yeah?”

“This trip might be one of the best idea you’ve ever had.”

Taiga smiled. “Can I get that in writing?”

“Don’t push your luck.” He tapped the string of glass beads hanging from the rearview mirror--a lucky item that was on its way to becoming a permanent addition to the car.

“Is it too late to ask you to run away with me?”

Shintarou smiled. “I was under the impression I already did that.”

The car hummed as the fields flew by.

“When we get back home,” Shintarou said, “let’s play basketball.”

 


End file.
